1. Field of the Invention The present invention is broadly concerned with an automated device for the salvaging of paper tubes or cores having residual yarn thereon, in order to permit reuse of the tubes and/or salvage of the yarn. More particularly, it is concerned with such a salvage device which makes use of a specially configured, axially shiftable yarn cutting assembly preferably including leading and trailing yarn cutting blades for cooperatively removing all yarn from the tube, together with a smaller diameter anti-tangling blade serving to remove yarn pieces taken up by the cutting blades. The leading cutting blade is advantageously formed of metal, whereas the trailing blade is preferably formed of synthetic resin material and presents a notched or serrated peripheral cutting edge.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the manufacture of synthetic yarn and in other textile operations, considerable amounts of yarn are wound onto elongated tubes (sometimes referred to as bobbins) to facilitate yarn storage and use during manufacturing processes. In modern day plants this yarn may be natural or of the synthetic resin variety, e.g. nylon. Typically, all of the yarn wound onto a supporting tube may not be used in a manufacturing process or the yarn breaks, leaving a residuum of the yarn wound on the tube. Thus, in order to reuse the tube, it is necessary to remove the yarn residuum. Reuse of these tubes, and in some cases the yarn is very attractive from an economic point of view, considering the large number of tubes employed and the cost thereof.
Attempts have been made to manually remove residual yarn from tubes through the use of sharp knives or the like. This method is of course extremely slow and labor intensive. Furthermore, it is very probable that a knife utilized for severing the yarn will nick or cut the surface of the tube (which is typically formed of paper). This effectively ruins the tube, inasmuch as such a nick or cut will cause the tube to damage or cut any yarn thereon at a later time.
A number of other attempts have been made to develop stripping or cutting devices for yarn removal, see e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,928,899, 3,092,889, 2,641,821, 2,613,425, 3,112,550, 3,137,913, 4,078,282, and 4,506,575. These prior devices have been characterized by rather extreme compxlexity, and therefore have not truly served the needs of the industry. Furthermore, such devices are believed to be still plagued by the problem of nicking or cutting the tubes.
Accordingly, there is a real and unsatisfied need in the art for a simplified, relatively high speed machine for removing residual yarn from tubes or bobbins without causing such damage to the underlying tube surfaces which would prohibit reuse thereof.